(A story focussed on the sedation and mind control fetish. Non-sexual.)

New Neighbor

She had been living here alone in the country for months, she loved the peace and quiet. She loved to DIY and fix up this old abandoned home that she’d bought for next to nothing, and it was the perfect place to get away from it all and focus on her collection of short stories. But since yesterday her peaceful life was disturbed by big moving trucks and loud music. She hid behind the curtains and watched intensely as she saw the neighboring house being filled up with boxes. Which of those man would be her actual neighbor, would he be the one playing those throbbing music all day or was that just to entertain the movers for now.

They didn’t just carry boxes inside though, she also saw them carry the furniture, some regular furniture, but also some very very suspicious looking furniture, what was he building? A torture dungeon? Why the operating table and canisters full of chemicals? Was he planning on running some sort of plastic surgery clinic from out of is house? She feared the quiet country being overrun by blond, spray-tanned bimbo’s in Porche cars.

After the movers had left she planned on visiting the neighboring home to check it out. Last minute she picked up a package of cookies as a welcoming gift, welcoming a new neighbor was a perfectly acceptable way to check what was going on, wasn’t it?

She rang the bell and a scruffy looking guy answered. He had a three day stubble and he was quite dainty actually, wearing a loose sweaty T-shirt and baggy jeans.

‘Yup?’ He said disinterested. ‘What’s up?’

‘I’m Hannah.’ She said. ‘I live next door.’ She pointed at her own house. ‘I came to bring you cookies and welcome you to the neighborhood.’ She stretched out her arm, handing him the cookies, but he ignored them completely. He pushed her aside and stepped out onto the porch, he inspected her house.

‘You life over there?’ He asked. There was a slight worrying tone noticeable in his voice.

‘I do.’ She said.

He looked her up and down, then his eyes pierced into hers. She felt a burst of insecurity, nervously she started giggling.

‘I was told there would be no one around for miles, they said your house was abandoned.’

‘It used to be, but then I bought it.’ She twisted a strand of hair around her finger. He seemed bothered by this news. Fidgety and maybe mad as well.

‘I’m sorry.’ She said, even though it wasn’t her fault some realtor had lied to him. ‘I’m a writer. I’m fairly quiet usually and if it’s any consolation I’m not that happy about the thought of gaining neighbors either, so if we’re both quiet we probably won’t bother each other.’ She tried to smile.

He stared at her in disbelief. ‘Come in.’ He said, he made a welcoming gesture and she stepped into his hallway. Their was dust everywhere, the floorboards squeaked underneath her shoes as she maneuvered around the moving boxes.

She walked into the living room, there was nowhere really to sit, so she just leaned against a wall.

‘I don’t want to be a bother.’ She said. ‘I could come back later, when you’re all settled in.’

‘No, no.’ He said hastily. ‘It isn’t a bother. Let’s deal with you right now, let’s deal with this I mean, let’s resolve this. I’ll put the kettle on.’ He randomly opened some boxes until he found the kettle and something that appeared to be hot choco pouches. He put some water on, waved a white paper sachet around and then poured the powder into a mug he also pulled from one of the boxes.

‘So, you’re a doctor?’ She tried to make some smalltalk. He had been quietly moving around without saying a word, it was getting uncomfortable.

‘Why you ask?’ He said.

‘Because of the operating table. Your planning on starting some sort of clinic?’

‘Eventually yes.’ He said. ‘But for now I’m still in the research phase. Here.’ He handed her a mug with steaming hot... what was it? It wasn’t hot choco, it wasn’t instant coffee, could it be some sort of herbal tea? She took a sip. It tasted sweet and sugary, as if he had boiled her some strawberry lemonade.

‘What is it?’ She asked.

He shrugged. ‘It’s the only thing I’ve got, right now, everything else is still... you know.’ He gestured towards the boxes. She took another sip.

‘So what kind of clinic are you hoping to open?’

‘A neuro-pharmaceutical hypnotherapy clinic.’ He said without stuttering.

She blinked and asked him to repeat himself.

‘I’ve recently discovered a neuromorphing chemical that appears to have the ability to work cortical as well as on the lower cognitive levels, so this could be big, it could make my dreams come true. Don’t be impolite, drink your tea Hannah.’

She took another few sips of the tooth-achingly sweet formula she was drinking.

‘I was hoping to do some research, here all by myself, unadulterated by the big pharmaceutical companies, unburdened by getting results for shareholders, by company spies, by ethical committees, you know, everything that slows down true science.’

Hannah finished off her tea, while listening to his monologue about multisyllabic chemicals, and competing pharmaceutical companies. She couldn’t understand everything, but she followed the gist of it. He was some sort of science genius that needed to get away from the big companies to work on his invention in secret. There was no place to put down her mug, so she just kept holding on to the still slightly warm ceramics. His words seem to string together, just one monotone goo of sounds, she couldn’t distinguish anymore. Her suspicion was gone though, she wasn’t worried about getting him as a neighbor anymore. She would just work on her stories, and he would work on his science project. He was actually quite cute. Slim build, but a scientific genius didn’t need any muscles did he. His smile was quite endearing, entrancing actually. It seemed like she couldn’t focus on anything else, like her eyes kept being drawn to his face, his mouth, his lips moving, his big friendly eyes taking her in.

A wave of dizziness passed through her head, warm happy dizziness. She giggled and held onto the wall. A giddy relaxation spread through her body. It was as if she was completely filled up with trust and reassurance. Everything would be just fine. Those thoughts settled in her mind, like a mantra. She couldn’t hold them in anymore.

‘Everything is going to be just fine.’ She said. ‘You’re a good neighbor, I’m a good neighbor, well be just fine.’ Her voice sounded from far away. Her thoughts felt numb and absent.

‘Let’s take this from you, before you drop it.’ He pried her fingers loose and got the mug out of her hands, he put it on the kitchen counter, then he grabbed her shoulders. ‘Now lets make sure you don’t hurt yourself, when the paralytics kick in.’ He guided her to another room. The operating table was standing in the middle, he pulled the moving boxes off of it and told her to go lie down.

She complied immediately. There wasn’t a question in her mind about it, lying down seemed sensible, seemed save. As soon as her head hit the leather padding of the table the room started waving and spinning around her. A burst of giddiness, as if she was drunk, intoxicated somehow.

He tied her down, she vaguely noticed him closing the straps around her wrists and ankles. She tried to resist but a wave of laziness went up her spine, was it laziness, or lethargy. She didn’t want to move. She couldn’t move. She felt her mouth falling open, her head slumping to the side.

His hand lying on her face. He briefly caressed her cheek. ‘There you go.’ He said. ‘Lucky us, we were just in time a few moments later and I would have needed to drag you here. Imagine the struggle of me trying to pull your limp body on this table.’

She tried to obey, she tried to imagine it, just like he told her to. It was a ridiculous image. She chuckled.

‘So.’ He said. ‘I wasn’t planning on unpacking this part of the house today, but it seems like I might have to. You know. I wanted to be alone to do my experiments, but maybe this is better, you can be my assistant, you can help me to scout test subjects, you yourself can be my first subject actually.’ He turned around as he opened some boxes and started to unpack. She couldn’t see what he was doing.

‘You know. We’ll start off with something easy. We’ll make you fall crazy in love with me, and I’ll turn you into my very obedient sex slave, then slowly we’ll eliminate any need for you to think on you’re own, until you just blindly follow my orders. You know, thinking about it more and more, having a neighbor might work out even better than just me working here all on my own. Ah, there it is.’

There was some rumbling. He assembled some pieces together, then hooked her up to a machine. Little electrodes stuck to her forehead and her temples.

‘There it is!’ He said. ‘Some beautiful Alpha-waves and even some Beta-waves. Is your brain that active still sweety? Even though you drank the entire cocktail didn’t you? Or did you pour some of it out when I wasn’t looking? Anyway, lets see if we can get you down to the 8Hz theta-waves, those are ideal for accepting and learning new neurological pathways. Just listen to me.’

He patted her on the stomach and sat down on top of a few boxes. ‘You’re feeling drowsy, you’re feeling dreamily terribly sleepy, feel the chemicals I’ve given you flush through your body, feel them to fill up your thoughts, altering your mind. You sink deeper and deeper into that drowsiness, deeper and deeper into a very obedient hypnotic trance. All you have to do is listen and obey my every word, and listening is so easy. Obeying is easy. Effortless. It’s all you want to do. It’s all you can do. Just listening to my voice. Craving more and more and more of my words. My words turning into your reality.’

She felt her thoughts spinning as if they were draining away. A calm tingle took over, a relaxation, a satisfaction. It was as if his voice filled her up completely, there was nothing else she could do but listen. He kept on talking and talking. She didn’t even consciously register what he was saying. It was as if his words entered her brain and scribbled something on her unconscious, altered her unconscious, altered her way of thinking, her way of feeling.

An fluttering emotion deep within her stomach, barely noticeable, although it became stronger and stronger, with his words. She was so dependent on his words, she needed him to keep on talking, she needed him to tell her those fluttering feelings became stronger and stronger still.

A few moments later she was overflowing with butterflies, she was crushing on him so hard, insecurely giggling, flirting, she was deeply, deeply, deeply in love with him. He was the one and only, he was the deity she wanted to serve, she craved him, she needed to devote her life to him. Thank god he became her new neighbor.

‘Hannah,’ he said. Her name pulled her back to the surface. ‘In a few moments I’m going to untie you, you will still completely in trance walk back to your own home, you will lie down in your own bed and then take the pill I’ve given you. Tomorrow morning when you wake-up you won’t remember what have happened, but you’ll feel the effects of my words getting stronger and stronger by the hour, and you have no choice but to listen to yourself, to comply to your own feelings and urges. Understood little lady?’

‘Yes, Sir.’ She said. She felt her lips moving and she heard the sound of her own voice ringing in her ears, but still it seemed like someone else had spoken, she was unable to speak, she was still way to dreamy, way to dazed to react, wasn’t she. She didn’t quite understand. She felt his fingers moving past her wrist and ankles. Blood throbbing through her veins, her fingertips strangely tingled. He helped her up.

Her eyes were opened and still it was as if she couldn’t see. The things she saw just didn’t register. He pushed a tiny yellow pill in the palm of her hand and closed her fingers around it. She nodded. As if she was a zombie she walked back to her own home. Barely conscious. Not aware of anything. She climbed upstairs and sat down in her own bed. She pulled the blanket over her lap and put the little yellow pill in her mouth. She flushed it down with a bit of water and waited, while through the window she stared at the lights behind the window in the neighboring house. A burst of nervous butterflies tickled her stomach.

Within a few moments she felt a fuzzy wave of sleepiness crawling up her spine, it seemed to flush through her body in pulses, getting strong and overwhelming one minute, being completely gone another, well no, it was never completely gone, and the drowsiness was only getting worse. She felt a warmth filling her tummy, and addictive warmth, she wanted to stay in this twilight zone forever, she wanted to feel like this forever, such an euphoric warmth, such a safe and secure and loving feeling it was. Sleep was like a blanket, a warm cozy blanket, hugging her, comforting her. It entranced her mind. She couldn’t keep her eyes open anymore, her body feeling limp and falling a sleep all around her, then finally her mind gave in, she floated away in a dreamy haze.